"The first indicator that Saturday's matinee wouldn't finish pretty for the Blues came 4½ minutes into the first period with a 2-on-1 rush for New York. The Islanders were turned away by goaltender Ben Bishop, but they would have much more practice on their odd-man rushes the rest of the game, eventually breaking away for a 5-2 victory over the Blues. If Thursday's solid showing in Washington - albeit in defeat - proved that the Blues possess some resiliency, Saturday's lethargic effort on Long Island demonstrated that it could be a long 17 games to the finish line. The Blues lost their fourth straight game, which is the longest current losing streak in the NHL, and they have dropped seven of their last eight. "It's very disturbing," said Blues coach Davis Payne, whose team will return to the ice Monday against Columbus at home. "These guys have to understand that we haven't found success and we're going to work our way through it. We're not going to wait for it to happen. We had a lot of guys waiting for it to happen tonight." The sign of a hockey team not playing hard or smart is when it gives up an odd-man rush. One, maybe even two, can happen on accident. On Saturday at Nassau Coliseum, there were no accidents, as the Blues gave up a half-dozen rushes or breakaways. The Islanders scored their second goal of the game on a 2-on-1 rush, and they picked up their fourth and fifth goals by getting behind the Blues defense. In the end, the Isles finished with five goals on only 22 shots. "They just walked right through us, it seemed like sometimes," Blues forward Matt D'Agostini said. "We didn't have the answer to some of their attacks. If we get a solid forecheck, with guys coming back, we're not going to have their guys blowing our zone. I don't know ... we're going to look at it again, but we can't be giving up chances like that to any kind of team. We paid for it today." New York might have been in 14th place in the Eastern Conference, but the Islanders have been playing decent hockey the last five weeks. Forward John Tavares is one of the bright young stars in the NHL, and he showed that on his team's first goal Saturday. Tavares weaved his way by T.J. Oshie and Alex Pietrangelo on the way to his 24th goal of the season just nine minutes into the game. With 51 minutes still left to play, Payne called a timeout, not liking what he was seeing. "The direction that we were playing, there wasn't enough intensity in our battle," Payne said. "We knew we had to defend skilled hockey players and we were allowing them to skate and stick-handle right through us. It was unacceptable. (But) it didn't stop there." A turnover by Pietrangelo led to another 2-on-1 rush and New York's second goal with 50 seconds left in the first period. That gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead, and the Blues had almost as many turnovers (four) as shots on goal (six) in the opening frame." Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/article_326be0c9-09e6-503e-a0de-56acf4a0e1d7.html
